Posted on 05/17/2002 3:57:59 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
A lot of our homeschool friends, regrettably, bag-out of the program when their kids reach the final two years before graduation: fears of getting the kids "certified" for college. Fear not! The trend is that colleges are developing programs to access and recruit homeschooled kids, based upon excellent performance of current and past homeschoolers in the colleges. Such is now the case with Massachusetts Maritime Academy. Roy Fulgueras, Dean of Admissions, will be attending an upcoming homeschool conference in MA to pitch the school--a uniformed, military-styled institution (in its 100th year) that produces engineers and deck officers for Merchant Marine service. In fact, more flag-rank Navy officers come from there than from any other single institution. If your homeschooler is interested in a Navy Academy education, but unsure of the military comittment, that's the place to go.
While I agree with this statement, the problem I see for homeschoolers is that the National Education Assosication will attempt to bring homeschooling under their umbrella through regulation. And the NEA has said so - see:
Reply # 37 in the thread Home-Schooling Under Siege
As we have seen, a wealthy NEA can buy whatever political clout they need to get their agendas passed. And the regulation and control of homeschooling is on their agenda. I believe that one of the biggest favors we can do for homeschoolers is to bust the NEA. To do that, we need to inform teachers that they are entitled to a refund of the portion of their dues that the NEA and their state affiliates used for political activities. This refund can amount to several hundred dollars. See:
Reply # 14 in the thread Let's Help Nail the Teachers Unions -- It is National FReep Time
Here's some interesting information from the The Education Intelligence Agency (EIA) COMMUNIQUÉ (On the Web at http://www.eiaonline.com) -- May 13, 2002 issue:
"1) Are the Fat Years Over for NEA and AFT?
It used to be relatively easy for EIA to obtain accurate, up-to-date membership numbers for NEA and its state affiliates, but recently it has become a lot more difficult. Perhaps it is coincidental that the numbers are becoming harder and harder to find just as the news becomes less and less cheerful.
The tremors are small: lots of talk about needing inroads with Generation X teachers... financial problems here... possible layoffs there. In the past, membership problems were localized in the chronic, hard-to-organize states that had competing organizations. Today, the sounds are more widespread. NEA has grown every year since the mid-1980s, but for the first time the end of the boom may be in sight. The union experienced an increase of some 37,000 members this year -- about half of what it achieved in 2000-2001. More alarming if you're an NEA official is the fact that 20 state affiliates had a decrease in membership last year -- even as the number of potential members nationwide continues to grow at a fairly steady 2 percent annual clip.
EIA cannot yet identify which state affiliates are growing and which are not, though it seems safe to assume that the large states -- California, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, et al. -- continue to enjoy solid growth, while perennial weak sisters are now having serious problems. Activities to reverse the trend are already underway. The NEA Board of Directors granted $175,000 to the Mississippi Association of Educators for additional organizing. The North Carolina Association of Educators is laying the groundwork for an effort in support of collective bargaining in the state. North Carolina law currently bans collective bargaining by teachers.
Accurate AFT numbers are even harder to amass, because more of its members are not K-12 teachers. Nevertheless, the same tremors are coming from AFT. The AFT Executive Council's organizing committee met to discuss ways to get younger members more involved and active in the union. EIA estimates that about 70 percent of teachers are NEA and/or AFT members. Public school teaching may be the most highly unionized sector of the American workforce (the private sector is only 9 percent unionized). Is something about to give?"
We also need to inform teachers and education majors that there are alternative professional education associations that teachers can join for much less than what they are paying to the NEA:
Association of American Educators
25201 Paseo de Alicia, Suite 104
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
Phone: 949-595-7979 or 1-800-704-7799
Fax: 949-595-7970
Email: info@aaeteachers.org
Website: www.aaeteachers.org
Please note that the AAE is not a union. It is a professional association. Annual dues are $125 per year for teachers (includes $2 Million liability insurance - one of the reasons teachers join the NEA or AFT is for liability insurance). Student, retired educator, and associate/support memberships are $25 per year.
Here are some links that will be of interest to teachers (and parents):
"Grading the NEA - What Every Teacher Needs to Know About The National Education Association: A Special Report" by Perry L. Glanzer, Ph.D. & Travis R. Pardo (http://www.family.org/gradingthenea/news/a0012243.html)
"Teacher Unions and Parent Involvement" (http://www.educationpolicy.org/EPIseries/parent-bklt.htm)
The teachers aren't deliberately trying to give children dyslexia. But neither did Blumenfeld say that they, the teachers, were trying to do that.
Go back and read his sentence again. He said teaching methods are doing this. The teacher is simply the carrier wave -- the user of the methods. They know not what they do.
The question you might want to ask is who develops these teaching methods? Where are they developed? Who finances it? Who controls the "research" that supports it?
I still don't believe that there is a conspiracy among the educational establishment to deliberately give kids reading disorders.
In my opinion, the harm is caused by incompetence and disinterest, not active malace. But, as I said, that's just my opinion.
The techniques in use in the 1800's and early 1900's produced almost universal literacy, and at a higher level than exists today. I have a copy of the old "McGuffys Readers" that were in use in the 1800's. In the semi-autobiographical "Little House on the Prairie" series by Laura Engels, she talks about being on McGuffy's 4th reader at around the age of 12-13. I look at that book, and I think many college kids would have difficulty with that reading level. Also look at the Federalist Papers: difficult reading today, but intended for the general populace at the time of writing
We have a "power elite" today, in an environment where intellectual ability translates readily into power. They want their children to inherit their power. They do not want serious competition from your kids. There is a limit to how much of an academic advantage they can give their kids thru extra tutoring, but what they CAN do is sabotage the education that middle-class kids get.
No amount of fertilizer will make a maple grow as tall as an oak. But you CAN make them equal -- with a chainsaw.
I used his $20 workbook to teach my two girls at age 4-1/2 how to read in twenty, half-hour sessions over the course of a month. A total of ten hours.
He's right on the money with this whole language thing. Dewey invented the approach because he wanted to prevent children from learning independently. His dream for a "level," democratic society meant that children were to be "socialized" at an early age, and part of that socialization meant putting kids in teams, working together trying to guess the meaning of words.
Sam's the man!
Maybe this will start a few wildfires - -- -
I assume you mean the band rather than the talk-show host. Yes.
Bet many freepers had the same experience.
So true. When I was in college, there were many girls like her.
It was always beyond me, why they wait until the last semester of Senior year to schedule Sudent Teaching, hands on, real life teaching and coping.
Not everyone has what it takes to outwit and control a room full of kids.
It's not like medicine, where they have to be pretty sure the student doesn't kill a patient before they let them work on them.
I think Freshman teaching students should do a 1/2 day Teaching Assistant program to find out if they have the temperment and people skills required for the job, before they are allowed to continue on to a degree. But what do I know. ahhhhhhh
The incompetence and disinterest does exist...at a lower level. The teachers, principals, etc. are either incompetent or disinterested. However, the people who create these methods, including university professors, know full well what they are doing. They know that their methods do not work, as you and I understand what "to work" means.
On the other hand, these teaching methods DO WORK, and work very well indeed, thank you, if the goal is to dumb down America and produce generations of people more suited for the role of subjects in a socialistic empire than citizens of a Republic.
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